"When disturbed, the serow utters a most singular sound, something between a snort and a screaming whistle, and I have heard them screaming loudly when they had apparently not been alarmed."
Colonel Markham says of it that it is something in appearance between a jackass and a thar, with long stout legs, and a strong neck. Jerdon's description is not clear; it is: "above black, more or less grizzled and mixed on the flanks with deep clay colour; a black dorsal stripe; forearms and thighs anteriorly reddish brown; the rest of the limbs hoary; beneath whitish." The deep clay colour is indefinite, as there are many sorts of clay, and people's ideas may differ as to the shade by the particular clay to which they are most accustomed. Dr. Anderson found it in the Western provinces of Yunnan; and General McMaster, in his 'Notes' (page 143), says that when he was quartered at Shuaygheen, on the Sitang river, in Burmah, a female of this species was brought alive to Major Berdmore by some Burmans, who had caught it in the river, by which it had probably been washed down from the Karanee mountains. He adds that even in its exhausted and dying state it was exceedingly savage, butting at every one who approached it.
SIZE.—Height, about 3 feet, or an inch or two over; length, about 5 to 5½ feet; weight, about 200 lbs.; horns, about a foot long as an average, varying from 9 to 14 inches.
The female usually produces one kid in the autumn, about September or October, and the period of gestation is about seven months.
[NO. 452. NEMORHOEDUS RUBIDA vel SUMATRENSIS.]
The Arakanese Capricorn.
NATIVE NAME.—Tan-Kseik, Arakanese.
HABITAT.—Arakan, through Pegu to (according to Blyth) the extremity of the Malayan peninsula, and occurs in Siam and Formosa, and also in Sumatra. Has been shot near Shillong in Assam.
DESCRIPTION.—Blyth is of opinion ('Cat. Mam. British Burmah,' 'J. A. S. B.' 1875) that his N. rubida is identical with Sumatrensis and Swinhoei, and he could detect no difference in their skulls and skins. I therefore take the following description of Capricornis Swinhoei from the 'P. Z. S.' 1862, page 263, where it is also figured, plate xxxv.:—
"The fur harsh and crisp, brown, with a narrow streak down the back of the neck; a spot on the knee and the front of the fore-legs below the knee black; the hind-legs are bay; the sides of the chin pale yellowish; the under-side of the neck yellow bay, this colour being separated from the darker colour of the upper part of the neck by a ridge of longer, more rigid hairs; the ears are long, brown, paler internally; the horns are short and conical; the skull has a deep and wide concavity in front of the orbits, and a keeled ridge on the cheek."
Blyth says: "This species varies much in colour from red to black, and the black sometimes with a white nape, or the hairs of the nape may be white at the base only." Lieut. Bevan described one ('P. Z. S.' 1866) shot on the Zwagaben mountain, near Moulmein, as being of a mingled black and ferruginous colour.